Devotional guide aims to inspire seniors

Nancy Parker Brummett of Colorado Springs has written a book with a message: Senior citizens aren’t old and useless, but are men and women created in the image of God who still have lives to lead and stories to tell. The 57 interactive devotions in the book are intended for people 65 and older; for groups in assisted-living or skilled-nursing or senior centers; for church classes or even one-to-one visits with older people.

Brummett says she wrote the book, a lesson a week, while volunteering at an assisted-living community, and the lessons are “field-tested.”

“If the residents didn’t respond to one of the questions I asked, I went home and rewrote it.”

Brummett received a Professional Advancement Certificate in Gerontology from the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. She has written four other books but now focuses her writing and speaking on older adults and their caregivers.

“The Hope of Glory” is available from amazon.com, where her earlier books can be purchased as e-books.

— Mary Jean Porter

“Everything Is Not What It Seems,” by Monica Cervanyk, Smashwords, $15.95

Puebloan Monica Cervanyk has collected 13 stories from the many people she’s worked with and offers them as an illustration of what she does as a self-described metaphysical practitioner and how she uses the gift she’s been given.

Cervanyk writes in her introduction that her clients usually have a question they want answered or an idea of how they can be connected with a loved one who has died. She doesn’t tell clients what they should do, but asks questions or makes statements intended “to guide direction as I see it with the tools I am able to access.”

Connecting with the spiritual world takes on different forms, such as dreams, intuition, sixth sense, deja vu, miracles, angels and spirit guides, according to Cervanyk. She says she hears random words or phrases, or has visions of people, places or things, or she senses feelings. This information pertains to the client but often doesn’t make sense until later.

In one story she relates, a woman seeks Cervanyk’s help because she is troubled by her husband’s drinking and her strong sense that she and their child can’t continue living with him; she doesn’t know what to do. During a later session, Cervanyk says a spirit appeared behind the woman. The spirit resembled her husband and asked Cervanyk to tell the client that she shouldn’t open the door to him when he came to her home. The woman heeded this message and hid in the closet when he banged on her door. The police later told her that he had killed himself. He left a note that said he had intended to kill her as well.

Clients don’t always like what she has to say, Cervanyk writes, but are happy to finally understand something that has troubled them and seemed impossible to understand.

“Everything Is Not What It Seems” is available at amazon.com. Cervanyk will personalize copies ordered through her office; call 719-248-9802 for more information.